1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to cutters, and in particular to improvements in rotary cutting knives.
2. Description of the Related Art
Substantial improvements have been made in machine cutters having indexable inserts. These arrangements are designed for machining relatively hard materials, such as metal. Such arrangements have been found to be unsuitable for use in cutting relatively soft materials, such as plastic and plastic coated products. A need exists for improvements in processing soft products, especially soft food products such as cheese.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a cutting knife arrangement with indexable inserts offering improved performance for use with continuous webs of relatively soft materials, such as plastic and plastic coated products.
Another object of the present invention is to provide improved cutting knife arrangements in which multiple cutting knives are arranged on a common supporting cylinder.
A further object of the present invention is to provide cutting knife arrangements of the type described above which substantially reduce the amount of maintenance and down-time required for maintaining cutting edges of the knives.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an improved cutting knife arrangement of the type described above, in which the cutting knives are economically produced using inexpensive materials and processes.
These and other objects of the present invention are provided in a rotatable cutting knife arrangement, comprising:
a rotary body;
a plurality of cutting knife inserts;
the body including an outer peripheral portion including a plurality of cavities, for at least partially receiving said cutting knife inserts, with the cavities defined by said adjacent cavity walls for supporting adjacent faces of said cutting knife inserts;
said cutting knife inserts comprising blocks of cutting material having a generally rectangular cross-sectional shape and forming cutting edges at the corners of the rectangular cross-section;
said cavity walls aligned along non-radial, non-tangential directions with respect to said rotary body so as to align said cutting knife insert, with a second cutting edge outwardly protruding for cutting operations;
said cutting knife insert and said body cavities cooperating so as to allow said cutting knife insert to be indexed to present a different outwardly protruding cutting edge when said cutting knife insert is removed and repositioned with respect to said body cavities; and
said cavity walls configured so as to receive a corner portion of said cutting knife insert, so as to maintain one corner edge of the cutting knife insert out of contact with the support surfaces.
Objects of the present invention are also provided in apparatus for use in preparing a continuous web of food product for packaging, the food product including a soft food wrapped in a continuous wrapper, the apparatus comprising:
a rotary anvil having an outer surface; and
a rotary cutting knife arrangement opposite said rotary anvil and spaced therefrom to form a nip for receiving said web;
said rotary cutting knife arrangement including a rotary body, a plurality of cutting knife inserts, said cutting knife inserts comprising blocks of cutting material having a generally rectangular cross-sectional shape and forming cutting edges at the corners of the rectangular cross-section, the body including cavity walls for supporting adjacent faces of said cutting knife inserts, said cavity walls aligned along non-radial, non-tangential directions with respect to said rotary body so as to align said cutting knife insert, with a second cutting edge outwardly protruding for cutting operations;
said cutting knife insert and said cavity walls cooperating so as to allow said cutting knife insert to be removed and repositioned with respect to said cavity walls so as to present a different cutting edge to said rotary anvil, and said cavity walls configured so as to receive a corner portion of said cutting knife insert, so as to maintain one corner edge of the cutting knife insert out of contact with the support surfaces; and
said rotary anvil and said rotary cutting knife arrangement cooperating to sever a wrapped portion of said soft food from said web.
Further objects of the present invention are attained in apparatus for producing packaged individual food portions in which spaced-apart portions of a soft food product, disposed within a continuous wrapper web and separated by sealed portions of the wrapper web, are formed by severing the wrapper web, the apparatus comprising:
a rotary anvil having an outer surface; and
a rotary cutting knife arrangement, carrying a plurality of cutting knife inserts comprising blocks of cutting material having a generally rectangular cross-sectional shape and forming cutting edges at the corners of the rectangular cross-section, said rotary cutting knife arrangement opposing said rotary anvil and spaced therefrom to form a nip for receiving said web;
said rotary cutting knife arrangement including a rotary body having cavity walls for supporting adjacent faces of said cutting knife inserts, said cavity walls aligned along non-radial, non-tangential directions with respect to said rotary body so as to align said cutting knife inserts, with a first cutting edge outwardly protruding so as to cooperate with said rotary anvil, said cutting knife inserts and said cavity walls cooperating so as to allow said cutting knife inserts to be removed and repositioned with respect to said cavity walls so as to present a different cutting edge to said rotary anvil, and said cavity walls configured so as to receive a corner portion of said cutting knife insert, so as to maintain a second corner edge of the cutting knife insert out of contact with the support surfaces; and
said rotary anvil and said rotary cutting knife arrangement cooperating to pass portions of the wrapper web containing the soft food product and to sever sealed portions of said wrapper web.
Still further objects of the present invention are provided in a method of processing a continuous web of food product comprising spaced apart portions of soft food wrapped in a continuous wrapper, comprising the steps of:
providing an anvil roller;
providing a cutting roller having a plurality of indexable cutting knife inserts protruding toward the anvil roller;
forming a nip between the anvil roller and cutting roller;
passing the web of food product through the nip;
cutting the web at points between portions of soft food to separate a portion of food product from the web; and
indexing the cutting knife insert at periodic intervals to present a new cutting edge for severing the web.